A custom capture sequence approach for oculocutaneous albinism identifies structural variant alleles at the OCA2 locus.

Oculocutaneous albinism (OCA) is a heritable disorder of pigment production that manifests as hypopigmentation and altered eye development. Exon sequencing of known OCA genes is unsuccessful in producing a complete molecular diagnosis for a significant number of affected individuals. We sequenced the DNA of individuals with OCA using short-read custom capture sequencing that targeted coding, intronic, and noncoding regulatory regions of known OCA genes, and genome-wide association study-associated pigmentation loci. We identified an OCA2 complex structural variant (CxSV), defined by a 143 kb inverted segment reintroduced in intron 1, upstream of the native location. The corresponding CxSV junctions were observed in 11/390 probands screened. The 143 kb CxSV presents in one family as a copy number variant duplication for the 143 kb region. In the remaining 10/11 families, the 143 kb CxSV acquired an additional 184 kb deletion across the same region, restoring exons 3-19 of OCA2 to a copy-number neutral state. Allele-associated haplotype analysis found rare SNVs rs374519281 and rs139696407 are linked with the 143 kb CxSV in both OCA2 alleles. For individuals in which customary molecular evaluation does not reveal a biallelic OCA diagnosis, we recommend preliminary screening for these haplotype-associated rare variants, followed by junction-specific validation for the OCA2 143 kb CxSV. Published 2021. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.